How VT could respond to family opiate crisis

Ken Schatz, the commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, testifies about DCF worker safety before the Joint Legislative Child Protection Oversight Committee at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Oct. 20.(Photo: GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

The people charged with looking out for the welfare of Vermont's children have been through a tough year.

"We are at a crisis point with respect to the child protection system," said Ken Schatz, commissioner of the Department for Children and Families.

In 2015, the governor signed a new law that responded to the deaths of two children who had been known to the state Department for Children and Families.

Since then, the department has wrestled with a series of challenges, most of which have happened since the Legislature adjourned in May:

The state has taken custody of an unprecedented number of children — mostly young children — and attributed the spike to opiate addiction. In June, infants and toddlers became the largest group of children in state custody.

In August, child protection social worker Lara Sobel was killed as she left work in Barre, and prosecutors charged a DCF-involved parent with first-degree murder.

Anger, frustration and threats rose against DCF in the wake of the shooting.

The state employees' union called for greater law enforcement presence and security at DCF offices.

DCF social workers continued to labor under high caseloads — an average of 17.7 families per caseworker — and child-protection cases continued to strain Vermont's court system.

The topic is likely to come up this winter at the Vermont Statehouse — again.

Government policies can only go so far, social workers say.

Child protection is a large and complex system, and problems often start long before the state is involved. Advocates stress the need for affordable housing, transportation, child care and overall family support programs.

"In some respects, when families come to the attention of the child welfare agency, we have failed already," Pugh said.

There's no shortage of suggestions on how the executive branch and Legislature might respond to the complex challenge of protecting Vermont's children:

1. Fund more social worker and legal system positions to cope with high caseloads.

When lawmakers return to Montpelier next week, watch what they do with Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposed $8.4 million spending package for the state's child welfare system.

That money would hire dozens of social workers and expand a drug-abuse screening program at the Department for Children and Families this year, and fund new positions in the legal system next fiscal year.

Money is tight, and some legislators are hesitant to create new positions.

"I can't support that," said House Republican Leader Don Turner, of Milton, a frequent critic of recent Democrat-led budgets. He said Vermont should look at the child welfare system overall instead of hiring workers as the solution to a crisis.

"We have to figure out ways to be more effective with the money we already have," Turner said.

Rep. Ann Pugh, a South Burlington Democrat, is on a mission to push the spending package through.

Pugh, who is also a social work professor at the University of Vermont, said her job is "to persuade the other 149 legislators that this is a place to put money right now, and we need to do it."

Shannon Morton, a social worker based in Burlington, said the funding for DCF would lower caseloads and could help improve the department's relationship with the public.

"My hope is that through some of the changes that we're going to get hopefully with the new positions, that it will start to be able to shift the attitudes of the community," Morton said.

"It's not everything that we've asked for," she added. Morton would also like to see funding for non-social worker positions at the Department for Children and Families, people who could handle lower-level tasks such as transportation and visit supervision.

2. Move DCF-involved parents to the top of the list for medication-assisted drug treatment.

Vermont has removed hundreds of children from families where parents are addicted to substances, especially heroin and other opiates.

Pregnant women and needle-using drug users move to the top of the list for medication-assisted treatment — but some parents still struggle to access programs.

"Dads aren't prioritized in treatment, so the dad doesn't go to the top of the waiting list," added Sandi Yandow of kinship care organization KIN-KAN Vermont. "So you already have a teeter-totter that's out of balance. And you have a family at risk because not both parents are being equally treated."

Morton, the DCF social worker, said she has worked with parents who reach a point where they are finally ready to accept help for their addiction. But when she calls treatment facilities that accept Medicaid, there's no room.

"It is so disheartening," Morton said. "We're talking about folks who could lose their children."

To address this concern, DCF Commissioner Schatz and the Agency of Human Services are trying to craft a new policy that would prioritize DCF-involved families for medication-assisted treatment.

"We're working right now to develop a policy that will ensure that the people at highest risk are getting to the top of the list," said Barbara Cimaglio, deputy commissioner of the Department of Health.

Cimaglio said the new policy could be completed in the next few weeks and would consider child welfare involvement as a factor in getting people to the top of the waiting list.

"Our goal is still to get to the point where we don't have a waiting list," Cimaglio added. "If we didn't have a waiting list, we wouldn't have this problem."

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Judge Brian Grearson is seen in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington in March 2012.(Photo: Free Press File)

3. Emphasize drug treatment in the court system.

Judges in Vermont deal with opiate addiction and child protection on a daily basis, and can play a key role in helping parents complete drug treatment so they can be reunited with their children.

"The way to work with these folks is early engagement," said Chief Superior Court Judge Brian Grearson.

Vermont's court system has struggled with high caseloads and vacant positions, but four judges are expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.

Grearson wants to train those new judges in opiate issues, then encourage the full roster to emphasize drug treatment in child-welfare cases.

Judges can monitor a parent's engagement in substance-abuse treatment, Grearson said, and if the parent is making progress, the judge can expand a parent's opportunity for contact with a child.

"We can take the principles of treatment court and try and expand them into these dockets," Grearson said.

Judges have not been able to work with families as closely as Grearson would like because the courts have been so backed up with cases. He's hoping the wave of hires will bring a new dynamic to the judiciary.

Shumlin's funding proposal would also hire an additional Superior Court judge to relieve workloads in the hardest-hit counties.

Lawmakers may consider several proposals stemming from the shooting in Barre and concerns over Vermont's child welfare system, including the following:

Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, and other Senate leaders want to increase penalties for assaulting employees at the Department for Children and Families who work in child protection, and to outlaw threats, especially DCF employees. (S. 154)

Sen. Peg Flory, R-Rutland, has proposed a trio of bills related to child welfare and foster care. One bill would create a system for restoration of parental rights when a child has not been adopted, and another bill would create whistleblower protections for foster parents who report unlawful conduct or mistreatment. (S. 183, S. 185, S. 189)

The Legislature could also take up other bills that are hanging around from last year. For example, Rep. Ann Pugh, D-South Burlington, proposed that the governor appoint a "child advocate" who could investigate complaints against the Agency of Human Services (H. 75). And 24 House members introduced a bill that would create a position to focus on preventing childhood trauma (H. 299).